The follow-up care of patients with total abletion
of the thyroid also appears inadequate.
Some had stopped
their medicine because of side reactions and appear hypothyroid to my eyes.
No regular follow-up has been pursued
to allow chance of thyroid medication,
cr increase or
decrease of @osage.
A general feeling of distrust of the
Treaty Trust and Atomic Energy Commission physicians is
wide-spread among the Marshallese.
The people of the
Marshall Islands I spoke to héve no great faith in these
physicians, do not consider them devoted to their interests,
but instead representing the interests of the Atomic
Energy Commission or the Trust Treaty authorities, and
were reluctant to place their health in their hands, -although they finally did so for want of any other adeGuate facilities supplied by the Treaty Trust Organization.
I am also impressed with tne failure of the
physicians to cemmunicate findings end prognosis to the
people of these islands.
Each patient is entitled to
have his questions answered.
He should be told the nature
of the lesion Ciscovered, and, if he asks-for it, a prognosis should be given.
The doctor should, when he can,
inform the patient of the cause of his illness.
These
basic rights of a patient have been in larce part ignored
in the Marshall Islands, and 1 found very few Marshallese
who were acqueinted with the nature of their pathology.
I reject firmly the thought that the people were too
primitive or uneducated, to absorb such information,
Since I have found this not to be true.
Among them are
educated and intelligent leaders who would be eble to
digest such information end form their own conclusions
abcut whet the islands, its vegetation, its peonle, and
its culture hes suffered.
I
have planned conversations with Americans
in {his
area of various expertise who would be useful in undcerstencing the course of food-chain radiation and
as well es the complex picture
of
these
conversations
ccrrespondence
is
sts injuries,
of fallout injury.
have been
started,
aiready under way.
and
seme
Some
of
I am writing to you instead of Gelivering an oral
report
so
that you may
use
this
written
report to
the
cemon-